The Data Vault: Top 14 data articles, 25 May - 1 June

Allergy sufferers in the U.S. have had a particularly rough time this spring, with April and May pollen levels in New York frequently surging 25% or more above the monthly average for the last three years, according to data from IMS Health Inc. But unlike in 2010, when pharmacies around the northeastern U.S.

If you want to find out how Big Data is helping to make the world a better place, there's no better example than the uses being found for it in healthcare.The last decade has seen huge advances in the amount of data we routinely generate and collect in pretty much everything we do, as well as our ability to use technology to analyze and understand it.

The business intelligence software industry is notorious for throwing buzzwords and jargon around like a hot potato. Within the industry, this is fine as everyone knows what words like SaaS, Hadoop, Data Discovery and predictive mean.

Some European Union regulators reportedly are concerned that major Internet companies such as Google and Facebook gain an unfair competitive advantage from the detailed consumer data they hold, since other companies can never hope to amass anywhere near as much of it.

Self-service business intelligence (BI) - it's on everyone's lips nowadays. So much so that over recent years, it feels like the term has been hijacked to the point where it has almost become synonymous with "Data Discovery".

Pick up the analyst interaction (even the Technical Advisory Committee minutes) with the Reserve Bank of India governor and you will find that after every policy announcement, there is at least one question regarding consumer inflationary expectations. Herein lies the role of 'Big Data' to unravel the mystery of correctly deciphering such expectations.

Transport for London (TfL) oversees a network of buses, trains, taxis, roads, cycle paths, footpaths and even ferries which are used by millions every day. Running these vast networks, so integral to so many people's lives in one of the world's busiest cities, gives TfL access to huge amounts of data.

Better data analysis enables companies to optimize everything in the value chain -- from sales to order delivery, to optimal store hours. Here are six examples of how major enterprises are using data to improve their business models. Big data is changing the competitive landscape.

When you think about it, it sounds obvious. But the fact that the mobile is always with us, the fact that effectively it locates the user in real-time, has huge implications for marketing in the 21st century. And the implications of that are only beginning to be truly understood.

Business Insider At its best, technology is able to tackle huge problems with remarkable ease. The General Services Administration, for example, has found a way to save $13 million a year in energy costs across 180 buildings - all thanks to a proprietary algorithm developed and monitored from many states away, in Massachusetts.

As is often the case with over-hyped buzzwords, big data's reputation in the enterprise sector tends to be more than a little inflated. To hear some people talk about it, it's the holy grail of analytics, an impossibly powerful business tool that'll put you centuries ahead of the competition.

The Live Well San Diego program is getting a big boost from big data. Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and UC San Diego are crunching census records, health statistics, hospital statistics and other massive tomes of data to glean new insights into health, safety and economic well-being in the county.

The term "threat intelligence" surfaced a few years ago. It is unclear where the term originated, and there is not complete agreement on exactly what it means. The deliverable is knowledge of a threat enough in advance to prevent a data breach, or at least to minimize it.

By Jack Torrance Friday, 29 May 2015 The latest general election showed how damaging an over-reliance on data can be. As the results came flooding in it became clear that the opinion polls that everyone had placed their trust in had called the opinion wrong.